Monday, October 27, 2014

In a wise move, the WWE chose to open the Pay-Per-View with the Two out of Three Falls Intercontinental Title match. Dolph Ziggler and Cesaro are two guys who can have a good match with their eyes closed. People may have expected this to be the greatest match ever and while it wasn't that, it was still a great contest. After a Cesaro Swing, Dolph rolls him up for the first fall in just 3:38. I expected that to mean this would get barely any time but the next fall was tremendous. We got a series of counters, a badass superplex by Cesaro and just all around greatness. After just over 12 minutes, Dolph retains with the Zig Zag, sweeping Cesaro. I enjoyed this opener and, while I wanted three falls, this worked well to help re-establish Dolph's reign after trading the belt with Miz. ***3/4

Next, we had the match that everyone dreaded. Brie Bella vs. Nikki Bella after their long rivalry involving a ridiculous Jerry Springer segment. People will give this no credit but it was much better than most expected. Brie and Nikki have a natrual chemistry that Paige and AJ unfortunately don't share. Don't get me wrong, this wasn't the Divas match of the year but both girls worked hard and made sure this didn't suck. Nikki won with the aptly named Rack Attack in about six minutes and I was surprised that she won clean. **1/4

The Usos stepped into the ring for their rematch from Night of Champions. There seems to only be two tag teams in the entire WWE so this was unspectacular. It's not that the tag teams didn't do well in this match, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. It started slow, the Usos flew around and the Dust Brothers took advantage of an opportunity to keep the gold after ten minutes. This was solid, but would've been better if kept a bit shorter. **3/4

The first Hell in a Cell match of the evening came up next when John Cena and Randy Orton stepped inside. A fan had a sign saying Cena vs. Orton #121, which is actually rather accurate. Just like the previous match, this started super slow. I was incredibly bored for the first third or so of the match. Things kicked into high gear and they pulled out steel steps and other weapons before kicking out of a TON of RKOs and Attitude Adjustments. The WWE tried to act like they have one of the greatest rivalries of all time, which is false and it showed again here. This was a situation where false finishes worked against them. Cena won with an AA off the top through a table, which was terrible booking. We get ANOTHER Cena/Brock match. Ho hum. This went 26 minutes. ***1/4

Sheamus took on The Miz in the next match in a match that had me split down the middle. On the one hand, the match itself was boring and nothing special happened in it. However, Damien Mizdow was by far the only reason to watch this. He stole the show, was incredibly entertaining and I couldn't pay as much attention to the match as I wanted to because he's hard to take your eyes off of. Sheamus retained in about eight minutes and then used Miz like a puppet as Mizdow mimicked his every move. Hilarious ** for the match, ***** for Mizdow.

The fight for America followed as Big Show faced Rusev. I fully expected Mark Henry to turn heel and cost Big Show the match and that was raised further when Henry walked down during the match. I was surprised to see that didn't happen. Instead, Rusev would superkick Show and Henry before making Show submit to the Accolade. I'm surprised that Show took the clean loss and I wonder what's next for Rusev. Maybe Rusev vs. Sheamus? I like that. Anyway, the match itself was rather dull and was just shy of eight minutes. **1/4

Paige and AJ Lee are far and away my two favorite Divas on the roster, however they have do not have chemistry. Their rivalry has seemed forced and the in ring work has been incredibly disappointing. Their Battleground match was awful, SummerSlam was solid and Night of Champions was good, but had Nikki Bella so I'm not fully counting it. This match was in the middle of Battleground and SummerSlam. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good. It was just there. We did get a nice spot on the guardrail, but overall, this was another skippable match between the two. AJ retains with the Black Widow in nearly seven minutes **

Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose got the main event spot they rightfully deserved and they delivered. Ambrose starts by going to the top of the cell and the anticipation was high. Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble were sent up and Ambrose took care of them before he and Seth took a big bump from the side of the cell through two announce tables. As stretchers came down, the fans booed thinking it was over. Ambrose had none of that as he pulled Foley, got up and brought Seth in to begin the match. The match was brutal and wasn't just a singles bout that had a Cell around it. It was a legit Hell in a Cell. Even with the brutality, we got storytelling as Ambrose hit Seth with a poetic chair shot reminiscent of The Shield break up. Ambrose was near victory when the lights went out and weird chanting started. A lantern lit up in the ring with a weird hologram/ghost figure until Bray Wyatt struck and took out Ambrose with a Sister Abigail. Seth covered to win in about 13 minutes, not counting the pre match stuff. ****1/2

The Bray Wyatt stuff was interesting. Some fans hated it, I thought it was cool. It was different, it's going to give us great promos and a fresh feud. Rollins stayed strong by winning, Ambrose stayed strong by losing under cheap circumstances. Overall, this was an enjoyable show. It wasn't amazing, but nothing was bad. Well worth the $9.99 and it made me look forward to future programming. 7/10